A survey of children's activities in the 12 months to April 2000 found that 29% of children aged 5-14 years (777,700 children) were involved in at least one of four selected organised cultural activities outside of school hours.

Girls were twice as likely as boys (40% compared with 20%) to participate in at least one of these activities (table 12.27). Girls were also more likely than boys to be involved in two or more of the selected activities (10% of girls compared with 3% of boys). The rate of children's participation in at least one of the organised cultural activities ranged from 22% in the Northern Territory to 34% in the Australian Capital Territory.

Playing a musical instrument was the most popular of the selected cultural activities (18%), followed by dancing (10%), singing (5%) and drama (5%). The activity with the highest ratio of girls to boys was dancing, with 11 times more girls participating than boys.

During the 12-month period, 93% of those children who were involved in dancing had dancing lessons, 75% of those playing a musical instrument had lessons, 69% of those involved in drama had lessons, and 57% of those involved in singing had lessons.

In the two school weeks prior to interview in April 2000, 44% of children (34% of boys and 55% of girls) undertook art and craft activities. This compares with 97% of children who watched television or videos and 69% who played electronic or computer games.